1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to bedstead boards (i.e., a headboard and footboard), and more particularly, to a headboard and footboard for a patient bed which cooperate with a patient transport system for transferring an immobile patient from the bed to a stretcher or vice versa.
2. Description of Related Art
It appears to be widely accepted that a major, if not the major, work-related complaint among nurses and hospital nursing staff is back injuries caused by lifting patients and getting them in and out of a bed and to and from a gurney or a stretcher as it is commonly referred to. A survey of existing practices and techniques suggests that there is no widely adopted simple and safe method of transferring patients from a bed to a stretcher, or vice versa, without lifting them. There are hoist-type lifts where the patient is suspended in a sling. The sling must be first manipulated under the patient and then the patient must be physically lifted, changing the shape of the body and applying pressures different from those existing on the patient when lying prone in bed. There are also roller boards which are inserted partially under the patient and then the patient is pulled onto the roller board. Again, the patient must be manipulated to allow the board to be inserted and then the body is pulled onto the board. In the end, the patient ends up on the board, not on the stretcher or the bed. An additional disadvantage of the roller board is that either the patient must cooperate with the transferrer or more than one transferrer is required to effect the transfer. Patients have also been known to drop off the roller boards and to land on the floor between the bed and the stretcher.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,339, which is hereby incorporated by reference, solves this age-old problem of transferring patients from a bed or a stretcher and vice versa. U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,339 discloses an apparatus for transporting a patient and includes a base, a patient supporting member attached to the base, a conveyor attached to the base, and a removable sheet. The sheet has a first end and a second end where the sheet first end is removably attached to the conveyor and the sheet second end is free. The sheet is adapted to be positioned on the patient supporting member, such as a mattress. In operation, an end of the sheet, which is attached to the conveyor, is rotated around a roller thereby moving the patient from the bed to a stretcher or vice versa.
However, the conveyor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,339 requires that the roller remain affixed to the bed or stretcher, or the complete conveyor be removed from the bed or stretcher. This results in a problem of storing the conveyor in a hospital room and transporting the conveyor when it is not attached to the bed or stretcher.
Further, typically, hospital beds vary in length and, in many cases, can be adjusted so that their lengths vary. In this case, a conveyor, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,339, may be inoperative if the length of the roller is different from that of the bed. Further, if the length of the bed is varied during operation, then such a fixed length roller could affect the operation of the bed.
The problems associated with the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,339 were solved by the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,697,109; 6,289,533; 5,996,144; and 6,507,963, which are hereby incorporated by reference. Namely, these patient transport systems accommodate various bed lengths with one conveying apparatus by providing a roller adjustable in length that can be easily engaged with and removed from a bed or stretcher through attachment (or clamping) assemblies. However, the attachment assemblies of these inventions can be cumbersome and difficult to use. Additionally, a bed or stretcher may have a geometry not conducive to accepting the attachment assembly. Furthermore, the various parts of the attachment assembly increase the cost of the patient transport system.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a patient bed that accommodates (i.e., removably receives) a conveyor typical of a patient transport system as described above, namely, a patient transport system that allows a patient, while lying in a prone position and completely immobile, to be moved, by one person of relatively low strength, safely from the patient bed to a stretcher and vice versa.